Spinal Headache and Vaginal vs C-section thoughts

February 3, 2013

So lucky me.  I got a spinal headache from the spinal block with my C-section.

The day after Colter was born I started getting a bad headache in the front part of my head.  I told the nurses I had a headache, and so they told me to lay down and see if it goes away.  So I did, and it did go away.  That means it's a spinal headache.

What happens is the spinal fluid in the spine and surrounding the brain slowly leak out from the hole where they gave me the spinal block (like an epidural), in my spine.

My doctor told me I should get the spinal blood patch to fix it.  

The blood patch, is where they give me another injection in my spine, and draw my blood to inject into the spinal fluid area in my spine.  It fills up the fluid that drained out, and patches the hole.  It's supposed to immediately fix the headache.

I don't have good luck with injections in my spine.  The thought of getting another one was horrific!

So I met with a anesthesiologist in Pain Management in the hospital and we talked it all out.  He did tell me the headache would go away in 1-2 weeks when the fluid replenished itself.  So I opted to wait it out.

They told me to drink lots of caffeine, drink lots of water, lay down, and rest.  It's kind of hard to do when you're breastfeeding every 2 hrs and have to be sitting up to be checked all the time as well. But that's what I decided to do.  Anything but another injection in my back!

So the next few days I was dying!  My headache got worse and worse.  I was on pain meds and it still killed!  I was still trying to stick it out though.  My doctor recommended I stay at the hospital another day, so 4 days, because of the pain, and he also hoped I'd change my mind and get the blood patch.

By day 4 I'd had it!  I told them I wanted the blood patch.

My forehead killed, my eyes killed, my neck killed.  It hurt really bad when I turned my head anywhere but straight forward.  So every time a nurse came in to check me I'd have to slowly turn my head to look.  When I was nursing I'd turn my head to check the clock to see how long I'd nursed on each side, and that killed.

So they wheeled me back down to pain management.

My doctor was a super nice Asian man with a strong accent.  I had told him how worried I was and how nervous I was about getting it.  He assured me that he was very good and that I didn't need to worry.  He talked me through the entire process, plus they had a nursing student observing so he and the other nurse explained everything as they went.  I think it helped me.  I hate not knowing what's going on.

I had to lay on my side and curl up in a ball.  The Dr. injected the needle into my spine.  I felt a lot of pressure and a pain went down into my tailbone and down my leg.  Then the nurse drew my blood from my arm, passed the syringe over to the Dr. He then injected that into my spine.  That was a crazy feeling.  There was TONS of pressure in my spine.  It freaked me out, but I had to hold as still as possible.  When he was done I had to rotate and lay flat on my back for 30 minutes, perfectly straight and perfectly flat.  It was pretty painful, all the pressure in my back.  Once the time was up they had me wheeled back up to my room at the hospital.  They helped me scoot into my bed, as I tried to stay as flat as possible.  Then I had to lay flat in the bed, and every 15 minutes for 1 hr, I had to have the bed tilt me up a little bit until finally I was sitting straight up.  Then I was supposed to get up and walk around.  They told me not to lift anything heavier than the baby, not to bend over, squat and keep my back straight if I needed to pick something up.  That was all really hard!  I felt pretty helpless!  And my back hurt.  But the headache was gone.  :)  I wasn't sure which was worse though.  After about 1 week the pain in my back was gone.  I do think it was better than dealing with the headache though.  So I'm glad I did it.

C-Section vs Vaginal thoughts

I'd have to say vaginal delivery was much better, by a long shot.  It's so painful down there, but at least you can cough, laugh, and sneeze without having a shooting, ripping pain in your stomach.  Getting up to go to the bathroom, or even just sitting up in bed KILL with a C-section.  Vaginal-you just have to be more careful, how you are sitting, but you can move around without excruciating pain.

I think with Wyatt, delivering vaginally, I only had a couple pain pills on the first day and night.

With Colter, the C-section delivery, I had to take pain pills the entire time and at home.  I tried not to take much, but when I didn't, it would catch up with me and I'd be dying!

People who've had a C-section, including me, got bad gas pain that shoots up to the right shoulder.  I guess it happens from being cut open and the air gets into your body.  It was SO painful though!

My lower abdomen is totally numb.  It goes from the incision halfway up to my belly button.

Vaginal delivery, you can get hemroids, which are a pain and uncomfortable.  

You bleed vaginally regardless.  Which I didn't really think about until they were showing me how to use the squeezy water bottle when I used the bathroom. 

But from what I've experienced I'd have to say vaginal delivery is the better way to go...if you had a choice, and didn't need a C-section.

There are my thought on the two, for those of you who've wondered.

But, just so you know, I'm glad I did have a C-section with Colter.  I didn't want to risk anything with him.  Since my doctors recommended it, we felt it was better to be safe than sorry.  Having a C-section was a sacrifice for me, but I'd rather sacrifice myself than him.

Oh how we love this sweet little bundle of joy!